At Grave s End

by Jeaniene Frost

“I’m fine,” I managed. “He was going to stab you.”

  “No, Doc was going to shoot Rattler again, weren’t you, mate?”

  Bones asked it with caressing menace as he tightened his grip. I winced and instinctively straightened my spine. Doc couldn’t; his was bent at the opposite angle. Bones had him folded like a backward sandwich.

  “Bones!” He looked up from sharpness of my tone. “Rattler was going to stab you.”

  “She’s right,” Tate said, pulling on his restraints. “He stabbed Annette, is she okay?”

  “I have her,” Mencheres replied from outside the cell. “Zero, go fetch a human. She needs blood. Annette, don’t move. This will hurt…”

  Underneath the rest of the uproar her low, pained voice penetrated. It was irregularly spaced but audible, and everyone shut up as her words became clear.

  “…Crispin…it was Rattler—ah! Christ, that’s excruciating…Doc shot him…when he stabbed me…is that bloody blade out yet, Mencheres, I can’t bear to look…”

  Bones released Doc. Vlad held Rattler in a punishing embrace, one hand on the silver knife I’d lodged in his chest, which was very close to his heart. Bones pushed past the people in the cramped space until he was in the hallway, kneeling by Annette’s crumpled form.

  “Don’t move, sweet,” he said with the soothing cadence one would use on a child. “There, feel my hand? It’s almost over, squeeze very hard…”

  With precision delicacy, Mencheres drew the wicked-looking silver blade from her chest. A laser beam would have been sloppier. The reason for his caution was obvious—she’d been skewered straight though the heart and any sideways motion would finish her. I held my breath as the last inch left her chest, because despite it all, I admired Annette. When it was out and she made a grunt of pain, sitting up, I let out my breath. It seemed everyone did, even those who didn’t breathe.

  Zero came back, holding a wide-eyed teenager under his arm. Bones moved to allow the young man to be deposited next to her, and Annette latched her mouth onto him the next moment. Her hand still was curled around Bones’s and he brought it to his lips before letting her go and standing with grim purpose.

  Doc stood also now, his spine having healed in the interim. He went to Annette, who just released the teenage boy with a last lick of her lips. Zero supported him as he lurched away. I hoped they had a good supply of iron pills here.

  Doc stretched and his back made an audible crack.

  “Think the last of them settled back into place. Bones, don’t try to play chiropractor with me again. After all, I’m the only certified medical professional in this room.”

  “You were a bleedin’ dentist, and a rotten one from what I hear. Still, you are without a doubt the fastest shooter I’ve seen anywhere in any era, and I shall be grateful to you the rest of my days.” Bones glanced at Vlad next. “Pull that knife out of Rattler once my wife is clear of his reach.” To Spade, he said simply, “Let Tate loose.”

  The clanking of irons was the only sound now as Spade released Tate from his restraints. Once free, Tate stretched in much the same manner Doc had, only with a lot less graciousness for his rough treatment.

  “Told you it wasn’t me.”

  “I knew you suspected me,” Doc said. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable this morning, Cat, but Rattler had been skulking around the side of the house after you. He knew I saw him, and it made him desperate. I followed him down here just in time to see him stab Annette. At least my bullets kept him from finishing her.”

  Bones laid his hand on Doc’s shoulder. “Take Annette out of here, and once again, you have my deepest gratitude.”

  After the two of them left, Bones turned to Vlad with a cold smile. “Let’s fill that vacancy on the wall, shall we?”

  There was a matching smile on the former prince’s lips as the two of them strapped Rattler into the same clamps that had held Tate.

  “You must be hungry,” I said to Tate, who’d gone to my side as soon as he was released. “They’re stocked here, believe me. Have someone show you.”

  Tate rubbed his arms, as if he could still feel those clamps biting into them. “It can wait. Your head’s bleeding.”

  “I’ll tend to her.”

  With Rattler bound, Bones came to me, pressing his lips against the wound in my crown.

  “You could have cracked your skull like an egg smashing into that wall, let alone the risk of getting shot. Mule-headed woman, at least it appears your stubbornness is well protected by a thick layer of bone. Have I thanked you yet for your reckless disregard of my directive to stay upstairs?”

  “No,” I said with a small smile.

  Bones set me back, pulling a knife from his pants. “I will. Promise.”

  He cut his palm and placed it over my head. The tingling sensation was almost instant as my flesh healed. With a last brush of his lips, he let me go, and turned to the vampire who was the center of attention.

  “Why?”

  It was asked with the threat of punishment and the pain of betrayal combined. Rattler dropped his gaze.

  Spade rammed his elbow so hard into Rattler’s rib cage that half his arm disappeared from sight.

  “You were asked a question, Walter!”

  Walter, a.k.a. Rattler, gave a gasp of pain even as Bones laid a hand on Spade.

  “It’s all right, mate. We’ll give him a chance to confess without bloodying him first.” Then to Rattler, with a much harder tone.

  “You know how this will go down. No matter how brave you fancy yourself, everyone breaks eventually. So you will either detail exactly when, why, and how you threw your lot in with Patra with all your limbs and skin attached…or with new parts growing as fast as we can tear them off.”

  For once, such a grim pronouncement didn’t fill me with the slightest bit of compassion. It was all I could do not to fling myself on Rattler and start ripping him to pieces just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

  “Was it for money?” I hissed. “All that gold and glory she promised? Is that it, were you just greedy?”

  “I don’t care about money.” Whether it was spoken to me or Bones was a toss-up; Rattler glanced at both of us. “I did what I had to do for love.”

  “For love?” I repeated. “You’re in love with Patra? Then you’re stupid as well as a backstabbing asshole.”

  “Not Patra. For Vivienne.”

  “Patra killed Vivienne, why would you—” Bones began, and then stopped. He shook his head with a sound that was much too callous to be laughter.

  “Ah, I see. All this time, then? You told me Vivienne had been slain months ago. I grieved with you, you sod, and all the while you were waiting for your chance!”

  It clicked then. I remembered the explosion at Mencheres’s house caused by vampires who’d turned themselves into walking bombs all for the sake of whoever Patra had kidnapped beforehand. Seems Patra had done the same with Rattler by kidnapping someone he loved to get him to betray Bones. What a truly vile person Patra was. If possible, I hated her even more.

  “How do you even know Vivienne’s still alive?” Bones asked.

  Rattler looked even more pained than he did right after Spade had elbowed him out the other side.

  “Because every week Patra calls me…and lets me hear her scream.”

  Bones began to pace in limited, impotent strides.

  “I only told her about the train,” Rattler went on. “I had nothing to do with the attacks on your wife. Earlier, I was going to snatch Cat and threaten to kill her unless you slew yourself in my sight, but Doc saw me, and I knew he’d shoot me before I could grab her. So I came to where you were holding the only other person the Reaper would endanger herself for, but I failed. I know you’ll punish me as an example, yet I ask one thing…”

  “You’d dare ask me for anything?” Harshly.

  “I don’t plead for lenience. I know you’ll put me with the other one, but before you do…Bones, my sire, I ask that you forgive me.”

  B
ones quit pacing. There was a loaded silence. Then he came to stand in front of Rattler.

  “In 1867, I befriended you. Five years later, I changed you, and what did I say was the worst thing you could ever do as a vampire?”

  Rattler looked away. “To betray your sire.”

  “Right. You have committed the worst act you could in the eyes of our people, yet you ask my forgiveness. Do you know what I have to say to that, Walter Tannenbaum?”

  Bones was completely still, and that should have been my warning. Maybe it was the aftereffects of slamming my head through solid concrete that slowed me, or it could have been that he moved too fast, outdistancing even Spade and Vlad as they tried to block him.

  “You have it.”

  The knife he’d used to cut his palm was still in his hand. It buried with a fierce twist into Rattler’s heart even as he uttered those words.

  There was a split second as their eyes met, me yanking futilely on Bones’s arm and shouts of protest coming from the onlookers, when I would swear I saw Rattler smile. It died in the next instant along with him. His body slumped, and before my eyes, his skin started to wither.

  “Bones, why?”

  Now I was the one who directed that ringing question to him. He swung around to face me.

  “Because I would have done the same thing if I were him, so he has my forgiveness.”

  In the uncomfortable moment of silence I spoke up. “He didn’t have mine.”

  Only the pain in his voice kept me from screaming at him. Instead, in a manner very like his, I grew more still.

  “I heard that bitch laugh when she told me she’d killed you. Then saw her face when she thanked me for it being all my fault. Aren’t I deserving of any retribution? Doesn’t my injury measure up next to Rattler’s? This might have been merciful but it was wrong, Bones. You taught me that. No matter how much you empathized with Rattler, you shouldn’t have killed him. I let you have Max. You should have given me Rattler.”

  And with that, I left the small room, the other vampires clearing a path to let me pass.

  TWENTY-NINE

  S INCE BONES HAD BEEN PRETENDING TO BE weak prior to finding out who the traitor was, he hadn’t spent much time with the prisoner he’d helped capture from the train ambush—Anubus, Patra’s second-in-command. In fact, Anubus had almost been neglected in the furor over Bones’s return, though I’m sure he didn’t complain over his lack of attention. In fact, he almost seemed surprised to see someone in his cell.

  This was really the first I’d seen him as well, since I didn’t count that initial time when Ian, Rodney, and Spade had returned with him and without Bones. Anubus was tall for an Egyptian, well over six-three, and he had the long straight hair and pronounced features to brag of his heritage. His bearing was far from that of a prisoner awaiting a grim sentence, too. He almost appeared relaxed, even though he was welded into the steel wall he hung from.

  His stygian gaze evaluated me in much the same way I considered him. Coldly. The first flicker of real disconcertion came when I moved aside to let him view the man who followed behind me.

  “Ah, hallo there, Anubus. Blimey, I think the last time I saw you was over fifty years ago. You recall, I had just met this very forward wench who took me back to her chalet and then nearly bored me to impotence with her shagging. Don’t think she moved once under me the whole time, and it took hours, didn’t it? Why, if the mattress would have had a hole of similar size, I wager I’d have had a grander time shoving my cock into that…”

  A bellow of rage cut off the rest of his sentence. I managed to keep my features blank. Bones had warned me what he would use to goad Anubus, since Anubus regarded Patra as a deity, but I’d insisted on being present. Guess he wasn’t kidding about it being graphic enough to piss the other vampire off.

  “Shut up, filth! I can’t believe you’re still alive, but you won’t be for long. All the flames of the netherworld are more than what you deserve.”

  “Oh ho,” Bones chortled. “So even after all this time, she still hasn’t let you sample a taste? It’s for the best, mate, trust me. Mediocre is the most flattering description I could give to detail what lies between that woman’s legs. Makes me wonder why Mencheres bound himself to such a poor excuse for a female, but then love can be utterly blind. And shagless, if that were my wife. Now here is a real woman, in every sense of the word.” Bones pushed me forward. “In her sleep she’s more passionate than that lump of Egyptian clay you worship. Patra knows she pales next to her. Isn’t that why she’s tried so hard to have her killed? Because she knew no one would be deceived by her claims of superiority once the world got a look at Cat?”

  “You will all die,” Anubus snarled. “Patra is the reincarnation of Isis and the goddess of this world. She has reigned for over two thousand years, and she can’t be stopped by insects who are lower than locusts!”

  “You need to get laid, mate,” Bones kindly observed. “She hasn’t even let you rub one off in all these years, has she? Wants her guards to be pure and all that rot, right? Your unspent balls have warped your brain, they have. How long has it been since you’ve even gazed on a naked woman, hmm? Before or after Constantine converted?”

  This verbal flaying was an unusual tactic for Bones, but he’d reasoned it was worth a shot. Ian, Rodney, and Spade had already tried other means, none of them pleasant, but Anubus had proved either unknowing or disinclined to reveal anything useful. I guess Bones’s continued barbs about having sex with Patra was the equivalent of some heckler boasting to the pope about how he’d nailed the Virgin Mary. Patra definitely wasn’t chaste, but if she’d had affairs aside from the infamous one with Bones, she’d been discreet about it. And she was notorious about declaring herself to be of divine lineage. Many of her people literally worshipped her. Anubus fell into that category.

  “Are you picturing it yet? My hands on Patra, mmmm, how many mornings have you imagined it? Lying awake, wanting to murder me for it, and then to find out that all the while I touched her, I found the whole experience quite…lacking.”

  Boy, did we sure have his full attention. Anubus’s eyes were blazing green and livid. “You’re not even worthy to be sacrificed to her. Patra only laid with you to sentence you to death, yet even there, Mencheres failed her. She should have just let me finish you that night as I wanted to.”

  Bones laughed again, but lower.

  “Think she was the first female who shagged me hoping it would lead me to my doom? Not nearly. That trick had been attempted before then and repeated numerous times after it. So no, sorry, that’s not why Patra was substandard in bed. It’s because she’s a fraud, a fake, and stripped of her lies—and her clothing—she was nothing more than a spoiled little girl with illusions of grandeur reinforced by such idiots as yourself.”

  “The grave is coming for you,” Anubus roared, all composure gone. “She’s summoned it, and it will find you and swallow you down with unending hunger—”

  And then he stopped. I didn’t have to see Bones’s smile to feel it. He straightened, all the bantering gone from him. Anubus’s face went blank, but it was too late. You fucked up, buddy, and you know it.

  “Now, mate,” Bones said as he went to Anubus and settled his finger with deceptive lightness on his face. “Whatever do you mean by that?”

  “Should we open the champagne, or wait to hose the boys off with it?” Denise asked.

  We were seated in the living room, a formal place with earth tones and gilded pieces of antique furniture. The massive table looked like it was carved from a single gigantic tree. Food adorned it, along with solid brass and silver serving pieces, but no one really ate. I’d been drumming my fingers on its polished surface before I glanced up at her question.

  “Hmm? Oh, go ahead and pop the cork. They’ll be a while.”

  The reason I was here, instead of downstairs, was twofold. One, I didn’t want to leave Denise and my mother surrounded by strangers on a holiday, and two, though he didn’t ask
me to leave, I knew Bones didn’t want me below. Since they now knew Anubus was hiding something and not just ignorant, the gloves would definitely be off. It bothered me that Bones still thought seeing him like that would change how I felt about him, but I didn’t want him distracted over me. Not when lives might depend on how fast he got the information out of Anubus.

  Denise poured the champagne. “This stuff is excellent,” she enthused. “Man, is this place ever stocked. Did you see all the brandy? I’ll need a new liver if we stay here long!”

  Her cheerful mood made me smile, but with a touch of jadedness. No, she had no idea how ugly things were downstairs by now. If you stay around vampires long, though, I mused, you’ll learn. It’s not all fun and vintage liquor.

  Instead I said, “Fill her up. There’s two hours before midnight, we may as well start the party. The last report from Zero was that they were making progress, whatever that means.”

  While Bones, Mencheres, Spade, Vlad, Rodney, and Ian were below, Tick Tock and Zero were our guards. Hell, we wouldn’t even be able to stub our toes without one of them jumping in to prevent it.

  “The snow’s died down,” my mother commented. “At least now you can see out of these windows. I can’t wait to leave this barren place—and just for the record, I won’t be waiting much longer.”

  Uh oh, there she goes. Some New Year’s wishes would never come true.

  I sighed. “If you don’t like being surrounded by these vampires and ghouls, imagine how much more you wouldn’t like it if it were Patra’s vamps and ghouls.”

  “I’m not a child, Catherine,” she replied in her usual sharp tone. “Don’t speak to me like one.”

  The tenseness of the past several days caught up with me, even though I of all people knew better.

  “You’re not a child? That is news, considering you’ve acted like one most of my life.”

  Denise’s mouth dropped at my rejoinder. She gulped her champagne, settling back in her chair for a better view.

  “That’s it,” my mother announced, furious. “I’m leaving!”